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I discovered how to become unstuck when I was 14 and came across a book called Far Journeys by Robert Monroe. Like most people who are infected with the Y chromosome, I did not bother to finish reading the instructions. I’m more of a ‘grip it and rip it’ personality. Your personal mileage may vary.

In the 36 years since, I have refined my practice as well as read up on how one is “supposed” to do it. Personally, I look at astral projection as being like penmanship or sex…you learn the basics but add to it your own personal flair. If you want to start exploring this reality without your meat suit, here’s my recipe.

1. Find a partner who will help you. They need not be as liberal a thinker as you but they also need to be liberal enough to not try to have you put into a 72 hour hold while they adjust your meds. Open minded but a critical thinker is best. Have then choose a definitive trigger item for you to go find. You can know the location but not the item.

2. Get an alarm with an adjustable timer. Finding that sweet spot between awake and snoring, beta and delta, 30Hz and 3 Hz, is more slippery than a soapy 2-year old. Chances are you have never tried to go partially asleep. Set your alarm for 30 – 45 minutes and try to find that place where you are asleep and are conscious. Focus your intention on finding that trigger item.

3. Focus on the adjectives and not the nouns. The brain (not the mind) hates…loathes…ambiguity. It’s raison d’être is to label a thing and stuff it in a mental file folder. You’ll need to train it to NOT do that in this particular instance. For example, when a friend of mine needed some veracity, he set out an American flag on his dining room table as a target. When I went to look for it I described it as “wispy…not solid, not metal, not stone”, “opaque…light can pass through it”, “it is associated with air or a breeze”, it has something to do with the sky because I can see deep blue and stars”. If I had let my brain try to categorize it, it could have decided it was a parachute. If so, the mental imagery transmission would have stopped. The brain, having performed its function, would have filed that task away and reset for the next task.

4. Practice. Practice. Practice. Just like the, ahem, aforementioned activities you get better as you practice. The Rhine Research Center in Durham has a recurring class where they practice remote viewing regularly. Your discrimination can become so fine tuned that you may not need to sleep. I have seen people look as though they are daydreaming and then bring back the exact item (not the adjectives) within a couple of minutes.

5. Build mental muscle. Once you have gotten the feel of where your consciousness needs to be to project, begin to mix it up. I bought a Twister bedspread but I left it in the trunk of my car. I told my co-conspirator that I had bought a bedspread and I wanted her to describe it. I deliberately front loaded a truth (bedspread) and a potential falsehood (where you usually find a bedspread). She came back with, “it’s in a dark place in a bag”, “it’s next to a wheeled trash can”, “It’s in your garage”.

6. Once you have the hang of that, let me know. The next step is to start moving back and forth in time. If you, dear reader, are afflicted with the Y-chromosome, I’ll tell you to start in the past first as you will need proof to get your confidence. Then, start checking out the future otherwise you won’t know the difference between projecting and dreaming.

7. Again, for my Y-chromy homies, don’t get all cocky and start out bounding off planet or into alternate realities until you have the aforementioned stuff nailed down. Nailed. Down. One, it messes with your head. Imagine sorting dimes from pennies in the dark. Now imagine sorting them once they have been melted, mixed together, and re-hardened. Two, not to be all conspiracy therapy…I mean ‘theory’ on you, but a CIA liaison confided in me that, “there are people whose sole job is to find people like you”.

So, the next time there’s nothing on TV or you are stuck somewhere, take a light snooze. Go see the Eiffel Tower being built. Listen to the Emancipation Proclaimation. See why the Anastasi Indians made their cliff dwellings. Connect with other playmates who are out exploring and share in their adventures. Jump forward 100 years and see how Earth looks like a Star Trek episode. Again, like the aforementioned activities, everyone can do this to differing degrees. Now, go out and practice. I got to go get another bedspread.

About the author: John Mathis designs clinical databases for Watson Health at IBM. In his spare time, he makes an organic skin cream for cancer survivors at elementalchemy.org. After his NDE in 2005, he began writing poetry and prose including a book, The Alchemist’s Heir, where a grandpa teaches his grandson how to use metaphysics to deal with a high school bully. It’s available on Amazon or his website – www.alchemistsheir.com. Currently, his agent is looking for a home for his latest book, Guitars, Cigars and Tiki Bars – A Guy’s Path To Spirituality. Born in Indiana, he currently lives in Durham, NC and can be contacted via www.johnmathis.me